Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Big win in tough building

It was a good night for StepanNovotny. It wasn’t so much for his new team. Playing against the Kelowna Rockets for the first time since being traded November 16, Novotny scored once and chipped in with an assist in a 3-2 loss. It was the Rockets 4th straight win on the road, a season high.

Rookie forward Shane McColgan was named the games first star and battled with Novotny and goaltender Adam Brown as to who was the best player on the ice. McColgan was at his best using his speed and energy and both ends of the ice. On this night he looked anything but 16.

StepanNovotny was solid in his first game against his old team. The 19 year-old seemed to only get better as the game moved along. Wudrick appeared to be tentative against his old mates yet played responsible defense-first hockey in the third period to make sure the Rockets didn’t give up the lead.

To Wudrick’s defense, the first game against your old team is often harder when that game is played on the road rather than at home. I am sure Novotny would have also felt the butter flies had that first game against his old team been played at Prospera Place.

Brett Bulmer had two glorious chances to seal the win in the third period. Both times Bulmer appeared to have the goaltender beaten only to lose the puck. On this night it didn’t cost his team, but he has to learn to be stronger on pucks. That said, Bulmer is getting into spots in order to score goals and had a seeing-eye pass that found the tape of the stick of Cody Chikie who had the puck roll off his back hand and ended up going wide of the goal.

Mitchell Chapman had a great game on defense. The rookie d-man was a force on the back end hitting everything in sight. Assistant Coach Ryan Cuthbert in our post game chat on AM 1150 called him “Unbelievable”.

I am a believer that what we saw from Broncos forward Cody Eakin and Rockets Brandon McMillan in last night‘s game was the direct result of looking ahead to the Team Canada training camp. I was looking forward to seeing Eakin firsthand, yet the 26 goal man had only one real good scoring chance early in the game. It was an off night. You don’t score that many goals not to be a threat to score every shift.

The Rockets are just the 5th team this season to record a win at the I-Plex in Swift Current.

World Gym Kelowna/West Kelowna

Regan Bartel

Will Cal Foote and Kole Lind be taken in the first round of the NHL draft?

About Me

Bartel is a radio broadcaster for the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League. Bartel is enjoying his 26th year in the radio broadcast industry, spending 13 years at CKSW in Swift Current before moving to AM 1150 in Kelowna in the summer of 2000. Having called the play-by-play for the Swift Current Broncos and Kelowna Rockets, Bartel has called games at five Memorial Cups (2003,04,05,09, 2015), the CHL Top Prospects Game (2012) and the Canada-Russia Subway Super Series (2009). To listen to audio, just type audio in the window at the top left of the screen.